"GOCE Will be the Coolest Satellite to Orbit Earth, Ever"
astroENGINE (August 24, 2008)
"The European Space Agency is set to launch the Gravity field and steady-state Ocean Circulation Explorer (GOCE) ... satellite on September 10th. This advanced mission will be the most sophisticated piece of kit ever to orbit the Earth, investigating the Earth’s gravitational field. It will perform a highly accurate mapping campaign, producing a high resolution reference shape of the geoid (i.e. the shape of our planet). The mission will be unprecedented, but that’s not the reason why I’m drawing attention to it...."
I'm inclined to agree with the author on this: GOCE is a very cool looking spacecraft.
This is a rare discussion of the aesthetics of spacecraft design.
Hello,
ReplyDeleteit's a great mission for the advancement in existing one because it well provide more accurate results which will be more helpful in scientific executions.
And let's not forget the most important part. How cool looking it is.
ReplyDeleteKidding! (Sort of.)
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ReplyDeleteThat is a great mission: and I think that, in the long run, there will be practical benefits from the extremely accurate measurements.
What struck me about the post I reviewed was that the author discussed the aesthetics of the spacecraft design.
That's an aspect of astronautics that almost never gets attention.